The Waitress
The Waitress works at a local coffee shop frequented by Charlie Kelly, who openly stalks her despite numerous restraining orders. Her real name has not been revealed. The Waitress has worked a number of side jobs to make extra money: first as a manager of a corporate pub and later as a booth manager at a local fair. She lives in an apartment in Philadelphia. The Waitress is a recurring character, appearing in every season. She is portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Ellis. Personality The waitress is an on-and-off again alcoholic. She has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous in the past , although she has relapsed at least twice; while drunk, she is rude and belligerent. The Waitress is frustrated by Charlie Kelly's obsessive stalking. She has no interest in Charlie, but has harbored an unrequited crush on . Dennis has played with her feelings so many times that she now has a love/hate relationship with him, depending on whether or not he is expressing interest in her. She slept with Frank Reynolds in . She also has a desire for revenge on Dennis, which has resulted in her trying to win Paddy's Pub in a dance contest. Charlie goes to great lengths to woo the Waitress, even going so far to express his affections and intentions with a musical production. The Waitress has low self-esteem, which has allowed various people to manipulate her in humiliating ways: * The Waitress agreed to have sex with Charlie in exchange for $250 but simply went on a date with him instead. Mac and Dennis fail to get a refund after they find out. * The Waitress slept with Frank to get back at Dennis. * Dee convinced her that she should hire Charlie at the corporate pub, because then Dee would say nice things about the Waitress to Dennis. * Dee convinced her to grind a homeless guy to make Dennis jealous. In actuality Dee was trying make Charlie jealous so that he would lose the dance contest. * Brad Fisher proposed to her after a very short period of time and she accepted; later it emerged that he was just getting revenge for how she treated him in . * While drunk, she agreed to have sex with the first person who talked to her. This person turned out to be Schmitty. The waitress appears to be concerned for her safety. She warned Charlie that she carried Mace in "The Nightman Cometh". She sprayed a Mace-like can on and when they followed her late at night. Early Life The Waitress went to high school with The Gang but none of them seems to remember her. She sat next to Dee in Trig. In an earlier episode the Waitress asks Dee "if she went to high school?" when Dee tricks her into filling out a job application for her (In the syndication run of the episode the line is changed saying she doesn't know Dee's address). She briefly dated Brad Fisher, but broke up with him because of his "pizza face". Character History Season One As Charlie has coffee with Mac and Dennis, they talk about Terrell's plans for recruiting people to the bar, quoting "there will be niggers hanging from rafters." The Waitress overhears this, and Charlie assumes she thinks he is racist. He later takes a black girl, Janell, on a date to the coffee shop to prove he is not racist, but The Waitress reveals his plan to Janell. While Charlie is trying to take care of his supposed son Tommy, Charlie bumps into The Waitress at a toy store. She tells him that she is a member of the Big Sisters of America program, and he lies, telling her that Tommy and he are in the program. Later, after Tommy was sneaking drinks from the bar, Waitress discovers Charlie yelling at a drunk Tommy in the alley. After seeing her wear a Livestrong bracelet, Charlie schemes up a strategy to get her to date him: he told Dennis he had cancer. Dennis worked with Mac to get Charlie laid and decided to guilt the waitress into banging him. However, when Dennis told her Charlie was ill, she began to feel pity toward Dennis and they slept together. Mac then paid her $250 to sleep with Charlie, but instead she took him on a date and made him buy her jewelry and clothes. Season Two Charlie runs into The Waitress at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, which he must attend as part of his sentence for setting fire to Ari Frankel's property. . The Waitress agrees to be his sponsor, but soon Charlie abuses her kindness by using this as an excuse to constantly go to her apartment. She, in turn, uses him to get her close to Dennis, who is coaching a kids' basketball team as part of his sentence for the fire. When Dennis uses the fact she is Charlie's sponsor as his excuse to turn her down when she asks him out on a date, she stops being Charlie's sponsor, which causes him to start drinking again. Dennis attempts to get out of Charlie Work by telling Charlie he will bang The Waitress unless Charlie agrees to do all the Charlie Work for him. Charlie's scheme to get back at Dennis by encouraging Mac to bang Dennis' mom leads to a series of complications that eventually leads The Waitress to bang Frank to get back at Dennis after she spots him trying to bang Mac's mom. Season Three The waitress revealed that a Starbucks has moved in across the street, and is taking away all the business from her coffee shop. She was forced to supplement her job at the coffee shop working at a corporate pub as the manager. She was fired from her job after she hired Charlie, Dee and Dennis, who ignored her requests to stop their shenanigans. Season Four The Waitress promises to sleep with Mac so she can destroy the sex tape Dennis made of his banging the waitress. The Waitress had a cat named Freidrich that died. She falls off the wagon after hanging out with Dee and Artemis. Charlie creates the musical "The Nightman Cometh" to woo the waitress into accepting his marriage proposal. Season Five The Waitress gets engaged to her high school ex-boyfriend Brad Fisher. Dee who also dated Brad in high school attempts to break it up. Brad reveals that he was leading both women on for dumping him in high school because of his acne. The Waitress has a new side job working at a carnival. Season Six The Waitress gets dirty mop water dumped on her during Dennis and Dee's podcast. Charlie hallucinates that the Waitress was at the halloween party. Season Seven When the gang visits the Jersey Shore, Charlie breaks off to explore the beach himself. While playing in the ocean, he finds the waitress walking along the beach. She allows him to hang out with her, and the two spend the night talking, laughing, and enjoying the beach. When she wakes up in the morning, she is freaked out for living one of her worst nightmares. She tells Charlie she was tripping on Ecstasy the night before. The waitress attends her high school reunion completely drunk. Nobody remembers her and she does not have a nametag. Nobody wants to talk to her, and she sits alone at a table by herself. She continues to get drunk and when the reunion ends she offers to bang the next man who talks to her. Before Charlie can say a word, Schmitty arrives and talks to her and takes her home. Appearances * Season One: "The Gang Gets Racist", "Charlie Wants An Abortion", "Charlie Has Cancer" * Season Two: "Mac Bangs Dennis' Mom", "The Gang Gives Back" * Season Three: "The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby", "The Gang Sells Out", "Mac Is a Serial Killer", "The Gang Dances Their Asses Off" * Season Four: "Mac's Banging the Waitress", "Who Pooped the Bed?", "The Nightman Cometh" * Season Five: "The Waitress Is Getting Married", "The D.E.N.N.I.S. System" * Season Six: "Mac's Big Break," "Who Got Dee Pregnant?" * Season Seven: "The Gang Goes to the Jersey Shore", "The High School Reunion", "The High School Reunion, Part 2: The Gang's Revenge" Notes * As a recurring joke, none of the characters (with the possible exception of Charlie) seems to know her real name and she is simply referred to as "The Waitress." * Her real name has not been revealed, other than two clues: ** Her name does not start with "W". ** Her name is not "Beautiful", which was the name Dennis gave to her when he was accused of not knowing what it was. * Actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis is Charlie Day's wife. * The Waitress has appeared in more episodes than any other recurring character: 19. * Along with only Artemis, the Waitress is the only recurring character who has appeared in all seven seasons of the show. * Charlie lists the Waitress as his emergency contact. Trivia * There was fan speculation that Nikki Potnick was the real name of the Waitress. In the 7th season episode The High School Reunion, Part 1, Frank steals Nikki Potnick's nametag to get into the reunion, and later The Waitress shows up without a nametag and says someone stole hers. Glenn Howerton tweeted in response that, "Sorry, but the Waitress' name is not Nikki Potnick. If u wanna know who N.Potnick is, re-watch S.1 Underage Drinking. First 10 mins." https://twitter.com/#!/Glenn_Howerton/status/145044563747274753 Relationships * Charlie and the Waitress - Details on Charlie's stalking of the Waitress. * Dennis and the Waitress - Details on the Waitress' off and on crush on Dennis. * Dee and the Waitress - Details on their shallow friendship. Bangs * Frank Reynolds * Dennis Reynolds * Brad Fisher * Schmitty References recurring character Category:Recurring characters Category:Season 1 characters Category:Season 2 characters Category:Season 3 characters Category:Season 4 characters Category:Season 5 characters Category:Enemies Category:Season 6 charactersCategory:Season 7 characters Category:It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Characters Category:Females